Archive for December, 2009
Wang Guangyi Biography and His Art Work
December 29th, 2009 | 
Author: Wang Guangyi was born on 1957 Born in Harbin, China. He lives and works in Beijing, China. The paintings of Wang Guangyi belong to the category of Chinese contemporary art termed Political Pop: work that appropriates the visual tropes of the propaganda of the Cultural Revolution, reworking them in the flat, colorful style of American Pop.
To understand the works of artists engaged in this practice, it is important to recognize the significance and specificity of the images they are using to fashion their work. Without this knowledge, the work of artists like Wang Guangyi may be reduced to a mere aestheticization of the experiences of the Cultural Revolution, a view which threatens to limit the discussion of these works to their formal elements, foreclosing more important ideological and historical questions that must be raised.
It is perhaps equally essential, particularly for Western audiences, to keep in mind the dominance that the Maoist regime held over visual culture and artistic production in China from 1949 to 1976, a control that reached a near totality between 1966 and 1972, during the Gang of Fourâ??s reign [i].
Wang Guangyiâ??s paintings combine the ideological power of communist propaganda with the seductive allure of advertising. Juxtaposing revolutionary images with consumer logos, Wangâ??s canvases provocate with their duplicitous message, highlighting the conflict between Chinaâ??s political past and commercialised present. Stylistically merging the government enforced aesthetic of agitprop with the kitsch sensibility of American pop, Wangâ??s work adopts the cold-war language of the 60s to ironically examine the contemporary polemics of globalisation.
Through his critique, Wangâ??s paintings weave intricate narratives, implicating the role of the artist as an active participant (both as subjugator and subservient) in economic and social policy. Wang treads a very delicate line between moral dictum and capitalist endorsement; the interpretation of his paintings alternates with the subjectivity of context. Amalgamating, confusing, and blurring opposing ideological beliefs, Wangâ??s billboard sized canvases readily sell out national valour, while simultaneously devaluing status symbol luxury for the proletariat cause.
Certainly, the vast legacy of propaganda that resulted from this period will continue to impact artists interested in critically examining Chinaâ??s recent visual history. After all, these images were more than simply popular; for a time, they were the only ones allowed.
Conclusions:
Wang Guangyi had already established his own style and the impact of the work had won him a strong reputation in Chinese art circles.
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If you want any information about Wang Guangyi or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/wang_guangyi.htm
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Investment Aspects Of Art
Most people, at least, in the West, know that art can have value. After all, they have been reading about Van Gogh, Picasso, or Klimt paintings selling for millions of dollars for decades. However, most people do not know that you do not have to be a millionaire to invest in and make money from art. Art is simply another investment asset class that savvy investors include in their arsenal. Therein lays the key to understanding.
The sad truth is, also, that most people who invest in the more common investment assets, like stocks and bonds, do not understand investment in those more common investments. I always hear people talking about “playing the market”, yet, as any professional investor will tell you (it just so happens that there are so few that odds are that you never met one), although it is a game, it is not a game for novices.
The first person to formalize a mathematical framework for economics and finance was John VonNeumann, a mathematical physicist, who invented game theory as the basis for studying those fields, in the early part of the twentieth century. Indeed, until the 1980′s, most of economics and finance sprang from this basis, and the focus was to assume, just like in playing dice with perfectly symmetrical cubes or flipping a so-called fair coin, that investment was a fair game: there was equal probability of gain or loss and the distribution of outcomes was the bell-shaped curve.
Since the 1980′s the behavioral school has gained ground, in the theoretical realm, by assuming that since people are not perfectly rational, we should examine the actual behavior of people in business and investment situations. Of course, that is something that investment professionals have been doing for centuries. Dow and Jones, in the 1880′s, said, for example, that at market tops the professionals are already well out of the market. After a crash, which will always happen because emotional human beings are markets, professionals quietly begin to buy. Their buying, eventually excites technical market analysts’ technical market indicators, which are somewhat based on supply and demand analysis, in real markets, and technicians begin to buy and recommend buying. Eventually, the general public catches onto this news, which is really very old news, and they jump onto the band wagon. Everyone tells everyone how smart they are and how much money they made yester day trading on-line. Meanwhile the professionals have begun to quietly exit the market. A peak comes; a crash comes. Then, all of those self-proclaimed investment mavens console each other and support each other in their ecstasy turned agony. Some run to the authorities and claim that they were duped because they did not understand the complex nature of the mini-bonds that they bought: translation – they were so greedy when they were told that they could make unbelievable returns, and they did not want to hear about the risks. Another lesson that the theoreticians finally came to admit after the stock market crash of 1987, which, statistically, should not have happened in the whole history of the solar system, was that the distribution of returns is skewed with a longer tail on the down side.
It will be beneficial to understand the basic framework of a market, investing, and basic economics. Economics assumes that people are self-interested. Its only fault is that it assumes that people follow enlightened self-interest: no greed, lying, or cheating. Finance says that there is a difference between price and value: value is what someone thinks that something is worth, while price is the amount that someone actually paid for something. People make markets. A market is not, necessarily a place, like the New York Stock Exchange. Indeed, many people do not even realize that the NASDAQ market is not like the NYSE, it is simply a network of dealers, connected by computers, who maintain bid and ask prices for NASDAQ stocks. This is referred to as a dealer market or an over-the-counter market (OTC), as opposed to the NYSE, which is one physical exchange through which all orders to buy and sell are funneled. In fact, many people do not even know that the NYSE is a very special exchange, in that all of the stocks on the exchange are assigned to specialists who are the only one that you can buy a particular stock from. The specialist maintains an order book of bids and offers, and he has the ultimate in information about supply and demand for his stocks at any moment in time. As part of his job as a specialist, he can invest his own capital, in his stocks. All the other layers of the business that deal with the investing public, after that, are in marketing. A stock broker, for example, is just trying to make commissions when he calls you with a hot tip. Even at the level of institutional sales, salesmen, analysts and block traders are just trying to get commission dollars. None of them risk their own capital. There are also investment bankers who help companies raise capital by issuing new stocks and bonds, and there is a large market effort accompanying that. An underwriter might risk his capital by agreeing to underwrite the deal at a price for leftovers and may support the stock, in the secondary markets, by buying for a month or so.
So, let’s look at the art market. A market is where supply and demand sort out price and volume. Art buyers, collectors and investors make up the demand side. Retail investors are smaller buyers of art, while high-net-worth individuals, trusts, corporations and museums fulfill the role of institutional investor. Art dealers act as brokers, dealers, and investment bankers for art. They act as brokers by taking consignments for sale or request to buy from customers. They buy and sell art for their own account as dealers. By taking on new, undiscovered artists, by having shows for artists at galleries (much like the road show investment bankers do for IPO’s of stock), and by acting as agent or dealer for an artist, they fulfill a role, much like investment banker. Ultimately, supply is limited, depending on the artist. Once an artist is dead, supply is fixed.
Value begins, as in all of economics, with scarcity. It is the same principle that drives the precious metals market, the crude oil market, and the art markets. As with anything else, quality also plays a role in determining an appropriate price. However, also, like with many other things, including any type of investment, marketing plays a major role. Galleries, dealers, and art critics try to tell people what is good and what is bad art. Sometimes, I wonder about their opinions. Other times I have benefited, as in the sale of a table made of roots onto which birds were carved, and as one of only two found examples by this unknown folk artist from the 1800′s. Sale of the table brought over $4,000, back in the mid-1990′s. These art market analysts play the same role as securities analysts, in the stock and bond markets. They might even make buy and sell recommendations, and they might estimate values of artworks. Since art is supposed to make you feel good, your basic starting point should be to look to buy things that you, personally, like, then, check out the price.
In the securities markets, smart investors value things on a comparative basis. Instead of trying to figure out what prices or returns should be, stock analysts use comparative P/E ratio analysis, comparing one company to other companies, in the same industry, and comparing P/E’s of stocks and industries to those of the general market. In bonds, the yield-to-maturity (YTM) of a bond is compared to current market YTM’s of bonds of the same company and to general bonds with similar maturity, coupon rate, and risk. In the same manner, the value of works by an artist can be compared to one another and to those of other artists. Normalization, in the context of paintings, involves an artifice: converting prices to price per square meter or per square inch. One might make similar size normalizations for, e.g., teapot art and sculpture. However, price per unit of size might vary over an artist’s work with larger ones, perhaps, trading for lower price per unit of size, and their more famous works trading at higher price per unit of size.
Having built a comparative pricing system for art, one can compare the prices of one artist to another and the average prices of one artist over, a school, a movement or a period by construction single artist or composite price indexes and looking at their evolution over time. That also allows you to calculate returns since return is defined as the percentage change in price over time. You can compare prices from galleries, which is the retail market. The next layer of the market, much like in other investment markets, is an inter-dealer market. The final layer is the auction market, which in some respects is like the exchanges, in the securities markets, but it is a stop-out market: a market of last resort for sellers. The auction markets are more fragmented than the auction markets, in securities; they are not open every day, either, unlike their counterparts in securities. Price information of one sort can also be garnered from the auction markets for artists for whom there are auction records. There are also research and information services, in the art markets, mirroring similar services in securities and commodities markets.
I bought my first piece by a famous artist, Joan Miro, in the mid-1980′s. I was surprised to find that the price was only several thousand dollars. By the time that I bought my third Miro, I had learned about and used information from the auction record to pay the proper price. In succeeding years I bought art by many famous artists. Although the art that makes the headlines makes it seem that all art is out of reach of the man on the street, you will be surprised to find out that art by many known artists, past and present, is not that expensive. Another little known fact is the good returns that can be made in art, especially when one approaches the market with the tools and techniques as one would in any other investment asset market. During my decades of trading art, in the U.S., I cannot recall a time when I lost money, and returns have always been exceptionally good, especially when compared to returns of other investment assets. I can even recall times that I have continued to earn a profit, in art, even during downturns in securities and real estate markets.
Now, we are investing in and have set up a dealer in Chinese art. I moved to China four years ago to teach finance and economics at South China Normal University. I have been immersed in the Chinese social and economic scene, and I have concluded that the best current market in China, today, is the not the export market or the stock market or real estate, but, instead, the art market. Returns, in art, in China, have been above twenty percent per year over the last decade, in local currency, and the continued undervaluation of the Yuan versus foreign currencies, coupled with other socio-economic factors, make investment, in this market, appear to offer good opportunities over the next several years, especially for foreign investors.
Up through the 1970′s and early-1980′s, investment in stocks and bonds seemed outside the reach of the man on the street. By the 1990′s everyone and their brother was trading stocks on-line through discount brokers. Now that we are in the twenty-first century, the next time you think about art, remember that it is just like any other investment asset, like stocks, bonds, and commodities, it is not outside the realm of investment possibilities for the average investor. Think of the analogies that we have laid out between art and securities investing and markets. You can also find out more information about investment, art, China, and investment in art in China on various parts of our website.
February 24, 2009 Craig Mattoli, CEO, Red Hill Capital, owner of Leona Craig Art, Guangzhou, China
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Online Entertainment: How to Download Movies on the Net
For movie buffs who prefer to stay at home rather than go to movie houses, going online is probably the best option. You can go to online rental sites and look for that recently released DVD. Or better yet, download movies directly from movie sites. If you think that downloading one whole movie is just too good to be true, then you should think again. A lot of people are reaping that benefits of the internet-from MP3s to video clips and, yes, movies. So do you know where to start? The first thing that you must learn is how to download movies on the net.
There are plenty of ways to download movies online so it’s best to start with the simplest. If you know the title of the movie you want to download, you can just use a search engine and key in the title plus the word “download”. The search engine will list all related links. You can open all these links if you are not in a hurry so that you’ll know whether the movie file you want to download has been successfully downloaded by other users in the past. This is important because through a user rating one will know the quality of a file-you can never go wrong with a file that has been downloaded by a lot of online users. Remember that part of learning how to download movies on the net is to be vigilant about bogus files that could pose threat to our PCs. The easiest way to know whether a movie file is of good quality or not is by looking at its file size. A single video CD can record up to 700 megabytes (and you would usually require 2 video CDs or more to record one whole movie) while a single DVD disc has a capacity of over 4 gigabytes. So a quality video file is anything between 1GB and 4GB. If you have a broadband connection of at least 1Mbps, then you should be finished downloading within the day.
Another thing worth noting when you want to learn more on how to download movies on the net is the use of torrent engines. Using the basic principle of search engines, torrent engines looks for torrent movie files-concatenated parts of a single file that can be shared and copied by online users (if a user is offline, then his torrents will not be available for download). Since this is user-based, a successful download can be measured by the number of seeders as opposed to the number of leechers. A good internet connection is not enough, you have to choose the file with a bigger seeder-over-leecher ratio.
These are just some of the tips on how to download movies on the net. And there are countless of possibilities for you to enjoy your favorite movies online. All it takes is a stable internet connection and patience-because movie downloading can take hours or even days.
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Music Review Of Como Te Llama By Albert Hammond, Jr
“Albert Hammond, Jr.” is an indie pop/rock artist from Los Angeles, California. He plays the guitar and his favourite guitar instruments are Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul. He is also a guitarist of indie rock band, The Strokes. When he’s with The Strokes, he often plays the rhythm guitar. As he ventures into his side project solo career, he still plays the similar musical soundscape as The Strokes, a bit of garage and indie pop rock.
Como Te Llama opens with a very guitar-oriented “Bargain Of A Century”. The beginning few seconds, i can hear the bass as if it’s running on a open field. Once the music catches on, you can hear the banjo beginning to play. When Albert Hammond, Jr. takes the stage, he sings in an energy-less voice. The guitar did a very good job in helping out this track. Well, this is how Albert Hammod, Jr. sings right? Very similar to the style of Julian Casablancas. 
“In My Room” is a more lively track. The beginning guitar shows some rocking sense. Albert Hammond, Jr. will sing, and the guitar will follow, complementing each other. From here, the music rhythm also shows some similarities to the music of The Strokes. When the chorus comes, Albert goes, “I miss you already…” The second verse of In My Room carries a more lively and energetic approach, and then the whole track just follow through. The ending 30 seconds you can also hear some sounds of organ jamming with the sounds of guitars. A great way to end! 
“Lisa” has a steady beginning where you can hear the music getting fuller as the seconds go by. It starts off with drums, and then followed by a groovy bass line, next is the guitar which sounds like it’s playing in an overlapping loop. A few seconds after Albert Hammond, Jr. enters for the verse, the piano just come with a four-note sound that blends in very well with Lisa. It’s very cute to hear the piano keeps doing that throughout the track. Lisa has its moments where the guitars and piano sound really catchy. During the break, violin comes in and sort of transforms Lisa from a catchy tune to an emotional tune. I would say this track is like eating you slowly… Really sweet and cute here! 
“GfC” sounds very cute at the beginning with the trademark guitar work by Albert Hammond, Jr. And when the chorus comes, i like the bass that is going on in the background as Albert keeps singing. The verse of GfC builds the tempo and the pace, and only shows Albert’s shouts and screams in the chorus. After the second chorus, the guitar solo can be heard before GfC ends in a similar way as it opens. This is really good!
“The Boss Americana” begins with heavy and slow guitar work before Albert Hammond, Jr. comes in at the verse. This song is kind of loud compared to the previous four songs. The guitar riff in the verse has some 90s elements in it which recalls me of rock songs from the 90s. The chorus in contrast, is softer where Albert goes, “I won’t know, if i won’t ask you to stay, would you let me go, and i will have your way….” The rhythm guitar in the background really resembles to those of The Strokes, you would accidentally think that this track is performed by The Strokes if you didn’t look at the artist behind this track.
The first few seconds of “Rocket” will have you think that this is going to be an explosive track. When the march-like drums come in, Albert Hammond, Jr. just goes on repeating, “Oh my rocket…” At some points throughout this track, some howls can be heard here and there. Before the second verse, the guitar pluckings that come in is really good. It stands out from the rhythm and music. This song is sort of draggy and slow, like a slow rock track.
“Victory At Monterey” has a very groovy bassline accompanied by some space-like soundscape. When the chorus comes, the guitar and bass work like bread and butter. It just gives an impression that Victory At Monterey is shifting into another gear and at a different speed level. The bass in this track is sexy as well, after a while, you would think that you’re listening to some dance/electronic track in a club. It makes you want to get up and dance. Victory At Monterey is a track that deems not to be missed, Albert Hammond, Jr. just hit you with this music piece. Wish i can have more of this…
“You Won’t Be Fooled By This” is a track that has clear guitar riffs. The singing of Albert Hammond, Jr. is often than not, drown out by the sound of the guitar. The echoic guitar is very consistent from start to finish. Only in the chorus, where Albert goes on a repetitive mode, “You won’t be fooled by this…”, the music changes slightly where the guitar strums into another note which sounds much lighter. Violin also creates a special appearance in the second chorus and in the last 30 seconds, the group howling is really something that stands out in You Won’t Be Fooled By This. Love the ending!
“Spooky Couch” is an over seven minutes long instrumental track. It has a dreamland soundscape that would make you think as if you’re in a dream world. The guitar in this track just comes in on and off as the track flows through. Spooky Couch doesn’t sound like what the title suggest, for me it’s just plain gorgeous. Sean Lennon is a featured guest on this track where he plays the piano. All together, they make Spooky Couch one of the most beautiful tracks on the album. The remaining 1:30 minutes will just blow you away, so be really indulged with Spooky Couch. A surprise by Albert Hammond, Jr. Soothingly beautiful!
“Borrowed Time” is a reggae-ish track, bringing you the atmosphere and feeling of the beautiful Hawaiian island. The keyboards in this track just work closely with the guitar, creating a unique sound between them. When the chorus comes, the track just turn up the tempo and Albert Hammond, Jr. just howls and moans. Without much singing, Borrowed Time is just another fine track.
“G Up” has it going on with the guitar work that really resembles The Strokes’. Even the way Albert Hammond, Jr. sings just keeps reminding me of The Strokes. The guitar in this track hardly stops and rests, it just keeps playing in a very consistent manner. I pay more attention to the music and rhythm of this track rather than the singing of Albert. If you listen carefully, the guitar on this track sounds like a fast version of a reggae guitar. Fierce yet soft.
“Miss Myrtle” has really good guitar sound. It lets you chill to the music itself. As Albert Hammond, Jr. sings, the guitar just helps Albert out with the repetitive strum of the guitar. The process of it is really good. As the chorus comes, the whole track just gets louder and the guitar riff that you first hear in the beginning just comes back and follows Albert’s singing. It’s simple, but really good. A happy track for anyone wanting to brighten up their day.
“Feed Me Jack Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Peter Sellers” is the last track on Como Te Llama. Albert Hammond, Jr. decideds to have a ballad to close the album. This track starts off with piano and soon joined by violin as Albert sings on. Perhaps this is the track that we see Albert sings with his heart and passionately. As it gets nearer to the end, Albert screams as the music plays on and fades. Just another way to end the night.
Cheers!
Darren Tan
Indiesurf.com
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Free Movies Online : Instant Entertainment at Your Fingertips
Every movie lovers’ dream is to be able to watch their favorite films displayed in excellent quality, whenever they want to and for free. And whether you’re an avid movie watcher or not, it’s still good to enjoy watching the movie that you like for free, while sparing yourself from its usual fees. Fortunately, with just having a computer with a high speed Internet connection, you could get to watch free movies online, all in the comfort of your own home, without having to wait in line to purchase movie tickets or run back and forth to video rental shops to acquire a copy of the movie that you’re itching to watch. Being able to Watch Movies Online is a blessing to movie fans anywhere in the world thanks to the Internet and the websites that provide such services. Although theaters are the most luxurious way to enjoy watching a movie, nothing beats free online movie watching as the best alternative because aside from being free of charge, it also serves as the instantaneous solution to a person’s video entertainment craving. So wherever you are and no matter what time it is, you could get to watch free movies online with just turning your computer on and logging into the online world.
Once in, all you have to do is to choose a website where you will be watching free movies online, and from there, the enjoyment possibilities seem endless. You could hook up your flat screen, high quality television set to your computer and watch with the family, or share with buddies during weekend barbeques. Imagine how super convenient and more affordable it could be when you watch online as a group as opposed to the hefty prices of movie tickets nowadays. Simply put, it could be the ultimate viewing experience whether you’re alone or with a group, and you don’t have to put up with the noises of other moviegoers while the movie is showing, as you could watch the same movie exclusively. This is also good news if you’re a constant traveler and you want a worthwhile past time that will kill the boredom of traveling, worry no more because you could watch free movies online in your laptop, and there’s nothing better to keep your mind occupied and away from the stress and lengthy hours of travel than some fun and worthwhile entertaining movie. Also, you don’t have to worry about watching a movie that’s outside your field of interests because the people behind the websites that enables you to watch free movies online are also kind enough to include a synopsis of the movies to give you a fair preview, without actually spoiling the movie’s twists and surprises.
Every person of any gender or viewing age will love to watch free movies online, and that being said, even critiques with delicate viewing tastes will love it just as much because by being online, anyone could express their opinions and views about the movie they watched by posting them in the comments section and share it with others. Providing a large database of free movies to access as well as establishing an online community of movie fans, these websites have revolutionized the way we watch movies and save us from the hassles of its counterparts.
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